Virginia Woolf’s Orlando was written as a joke, a play on the life of her lover Vita Sackville West as a biography, but not of truth, but of fantasy. Daniel Defoe and his satirical biographies were cited as an inspiration to Woolf. Sarah Ruhl’s stage adaptation was first seen in New York in 1910 directed by Rebecca Taichman (see Indecent). This New York production was commended for its visual design. Instead of expensive visuals, at Jermyn Street we rely on the humour of the piece and a lovely performance from the central figure who changes from a beautiful boy to a young woman over the course of 350 years.
Three chorus narrators (Tigger Blaize, Rosalind Lailey and Stanton Wright) open the play introducing Orlando (Taylor McClaine) in the reign of Elizabeth I (Tigger Blaize). The queen is greatly taken with the young man and his trim legs and piles him with gifts and appoints him as steward and treasurer.
As the Tudor years near their end, we hear about the time that the River Thames froze over. Actually the Great Freeze was 1683-4 but one of the marooned boats in the ice is Russian and Orlando meets and falls for Sasha (Skye Hallam), a Russian princess. Sadly Orlando sees the greatest love of his extraordinary lifespan in the arms of another, a Russian sailor. The descriptions of the iced up Thames are poetic,